was made in the peaceful home life at Edgeworthstown. Maria says, "We, who are so near the scene of action, cannot by any means discover what number of the French actually landed. Some say 800, some say 1,800, some 18,000, some 4,000. The troops march and counter march, without knowing where they are going, or for what."
On September 5th the alarm was given; the whole family was forced to fly from Edgeworthstown, and to take refuge in an inn at Longford. The Edgeworths returned again on the 9th, and found, as Maria says—"Everything as we had left it five days before—five days which seemed almost a life-time, from the dangers and anxieties we had gone through."
Two years afterwards, in 1800, "Castle Rackrent," the best of Miss Edgeworth's Irish novels, was published anonymously, and soon went into a second edition. The story is told by Thady Quirck, an old retainer of the Rackrent family. The portraits of Sir Murtagh, Sir Kitt, and Sir Condy are full of racy humour. Sir Murtagh had no less than 16 lawsuits pending at a time. Out of 49, he only lost 17, the rest he gained. Of Sir Condy, the last of his name, Thady remarks "he had but a poor funeral after all."
"Castle Rackrent" bears no trace of a feminine hand; it is strong and pithy throughout. Its
